Rose's Goodbye
by RoseLongbottom
Summary: How I imagine the 10th and Rose's goodbye really was.


Rose couldn't help but chuckle as she explained, "It translates to 'Bad Wolf Bay'". Tears began to well in her eyes, obscuring her vision of the one man she ever loved, "How long have we got?" She asked with shaking voice.

"About two minutes" he replied with an unmistakable dull to his once bright eyes.

She shook her head, unable to truly fathom what was happening before her, "I don't know what to say."

The Doctor painfully tore his gaze from Rose to look at Rickey. With a sharp intake of breath, he looked back at his love and said softly, trying to reassure but failing miserably to be genuine, "You've still got Mr. Mickey, then?"

Before she could stop herself she answered the man before her, "There's five of us now. Mum, dad, Mickey… and the baby." Her stomach tightened into knots as the words spilled out of her mouth. For an eternal second, she looked at the Doctor - longingly, hopefully. Perhaps he'd stay, if he knew. Perhaps he'd see their future - together. Though she dared to hope he would never leave her, for a fraction of a second she believed he couldn't leave his child.

But his face was not the face of a joyous, expecting father. It was the face of a man who knew he would never see that child. A man conflicted and torn apart by responsibility and guilt. An expression only one man could have - a man literally separated by a universe. And in that instant she knew that he would tear every dimension apart just to be with them. Even if the universe and reality survived, he would stop traveling, and park the TARDIS forever. All the lives he would have spared, the worlds he could have saved, would be doomed for destruction. All because he would not leave his child. He was a Time Lord. He was the last Time Lord. His whole life centered around traveling throughout space and time and saving the human race time and time again. To keep him from his true calling, his destiny, would mean the end of the human race, life as she knew it, and perhaps even the entire universe. And she just could not bare that burden.

"You're not…"

"No. It's mum. She's three months gone. More Tylers on the way."

"And what about you? Are you…" The unfinished question hung in the air. She ached to tell him the truth. That it wasn't mum's child awaiting arrival, but his. Theirs.

"Yea, I'm…" Within the span of a second she could see their lives together. He a doting father. He would teach him (or her) how to ride a bike, how to swim, how to save the universe. But she knew that reality could not exist. He was in a different dimension. And to bridge the gap would destroy all reality. So, no matter what she wished, it could never come true. The ultimate unrealized dream. "I'm back working in the shop." For a moment, she kept a serious expression on her face before it cracked into a laugh " Shut up. No, I'm not. There's still a Torchwood on this planet, it's open for business. I think I know a thing or two about aliens."

With pride and love in his eyes he nodded, "Rose Tyler. Defender of Earth." An eternity passed as he gazed at her with unalloyed love and pride, or perhaps it was a heart beat. "You're dead officially, back home. So many people died that day and you've gone missing. You're on the list of the dead. Here you are. Living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have." His face became unreadable for a moment. Guilt? Regret? Longing? Even jealousy? She couldn't tell. But it was then she realized the life of a Time Lord was not as glamorous as she'd thought. Sure it's full of adventure and thrills, but there's no real relationships, no continuity to life, no sense of normalcy.

With nothing else to say she asked, "Am I ever going to see you again?"

His expression darkened as his eyes welled with tears, unable to mask his own pain, "You can't.""What are you going to do?"

With a glance back at the police box, he looked sadly at Rose, "Oh, I've got the TARDIS. Same old life. Last of the Time Lords."

Bewildered, with a flicker of jealousy, she couldn't help but ask, "On your own?" Unable to speak, he simply nodded and allowed a tear to roll down his cheek. "I love you." The words came so naturally, so easily. How had she never said them aloud before? She would say them a thousand times over if she could only have the chance. But she knew, as he knew, that was impossible.

His old impish grin cracked across his face as he said softly, "Quite right, too. And I suppose if it's one last chance to say it… Rose Tyler..." And he was gone. His unsaid words hung in the air with painful longing.

Her hand rested protectively upon her belly. Though not quite obvious with life yet, it was only a matter of time before she began to show. People say that pregnancy hormones can make a woman inconsolable, even mad. On this day, it was simply a broken heart. She collapsed into her mother's arms, sobbing and rocking. Not only did she lose the love of her life, she now had to raise a half Time Lord alone. The very thought of the future was terrifying, and heartbreaking. How could she raise a child herself, when she could barely breathe without him? She threw her entire life, her entire being, into him and his TARDIS. And now she found herself alone, crying on a beach. Rose Tyler, the Defender of Earth. Rose Tyler, the love of a Time Lord.


End file.
